


tomorrow is a dream we share (today is beautiful)

by oldtune



Category: One Piece
Genre: Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Family Reunions, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Portgas D. Ace Lives, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldtune/pseuds/oldtune
Summary: sabo remembers how it used to be and how it is now. sabo remembers he wouldn't trade this for the world.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo
Comments: 10
Kudos: 190





	tomorrow is a dream we share (today is beautiful)

**Author's Note:**

> for my friend 💖 love u n take care

The smell of gunpowder fills the air, explosions tearing through the ground, the sky alight with furious thunder. The ocean is furious and her waves reach out to slam angrily against the land, rage in every rush of stormy blue water. If it were raining, Sabo wouldn't be able to see anything.

Instead he stands with his heart pounding against his ribs, the sun golden in his eyes and _knows_ he has to do something.

He's here for a reason and a small voice in his mind is screaming and screaming. It was luck that brought him here, standing in the middle of a battlefield where giants are clashing, luck and a fierce wind that shook his small boat and set it on a course he didn't have a map for. The stone beneath him shudders and heaves, cracking right under his polished shoes.

Sabo jumps forward on instinct, pipe spinning to catch against the shoulder of the nearest marine, who hasn't even noticed him yet and was only standing too close. He sends him flying anyway. He moves on instinct, eyes still glued to the stand and the shining sunlight that pours on the man under the executioner's blade.

The man is crying, great heaving tears and Sabo's heart is a shattered thing, splitting open the moment he catches sight of the tears. His freckled face is pale and his eyes are locked onto Sabo's, wide and shocked. 

_"Sabo?"_ mouthes Portgas. D. Ace from afar, looking like the world has been tipped on its axis. He leans forward and Sabo can see him shaking, trembling with some huge unnameable emotion.

The voice in Sabo's head keeps screaming, wanting him to answer, wanting him to run forward and pull Ace away from danger, to _save_ him. He doesn't know why but Sabo _knows_ , in some deep part of him that this is important. This is the most important thing in his life. He runs forward. 

From the corner of his eye he spots someone else doing the same thing, with the exact same amount of desperation and a look in his eye that promises retribution, driven by a love that fills his lungs and leaves his mouth in a resounding battle-cry.

Sabo's heart stutters in his chest for the second time that day and the world shifts again. _This one too_ , cries out the voice in his head and if he listens close he can hear his own voice in it, younger but more steady, more certain than he's ever felt about anything. _This one is ours too._

And he knows it to be true.

He's holding on tight to a fistful of memories he hasn't gotten back yet and they're hot in his palms like pieces of coal but it doesn't hurt, only lights a fire somewhere in his heart he didn't know existed. Whoever he is to him is important, just as important as Ace.

The knowledge settles inside like a bright force, like watching the stars and dreaming, like raucous laughter and scraped fists and a full belly of food and home. Home, home, home. 

He sees Luffy save Ace and then he sees them fall. Without thinking he moves towards them, slices clean through the air and deflects another blow aimed towards them with uncharacteristic anger. They manage to land safely without his interference and move to fight, back-to-back like they've done it a thousand times and Sabo _remembers._

He moves like a hurricane, tearing through all of those that stand in his path. Sabo draws on every inch of his strength, rushes forward with all the raw fury of a dragon protecting its treasure, utilizes the sheer _power_ that got him to the position of second-in-command for the Revolutionaries in the first place and pushes his way towards them with a vengeance.

People begin to take notice, to turn towards him as a threat as he batters his way past them to the execution stand. His name echoes through the battlefield and the tension ratchets up another notch. Let them talk, he doesn't care. Let them know who he is, who his _brothers_ are.

"Luffy! Ace!" yells Sabo and the names sounds right on his tongue. Like he's said them a thousand times before and rolled them on his tongue like a piece of sweet candy, a memory so precious it couldn't be stolen forever. " _Luffy!_ "

The boy stumbles to a stop and turns to him with eyes that shine like polished stones, bottomless and wild with untamed love and hope. His eyes flood with tears. Sabo's name leaves Luffy's mouth like a stuttered prayer and soon a body crashes into his own, looping arms holding on desperately tight as if to make him stay.

And then another pair of arms, a body with the force of the sun contained and made safe as Ace envelops them both and they're all crying in the middle of a battlefield, huge wracking tears and the analytical portion of Sabo's mind chimes up to say its unsafe, that they should move. Sabo wouldn't move for anything in the world.

He wouldn't budge even if the world cracked underneath his feet in this very moment, his arms trembling as he holds on to his brothers.

Luffy's tears soak his shoulder and Ace trembles against him, his devil fruit flaring from the force of his emotions and the memories flood Sabo's mind. The screaming voice of his child-self finally quiets. Everything clicks into place.

This it it. This is _it._ This is all that he was missing, all that he could've lost but is in his arms now, his treasures, his precious brothers and they are _safe._

 _"I'm so glad_ ," he manages to choke out. " _I'm so glad that I **remembered**."_

His brothers hold him tighter in response, murmuring reassurances.

And then a marine comes near and Sabo goes tense all over.

"Revolutionary Sabo," grinds out a low voice from behind them. "What is your relationship with Gol.D Ace?"

Ace flinches back, trying to disentangle himself and Sabo's heart aches something fierce even as he drags his brother back and doesn't let him escape. This is a familiar scene, an old pain. Ace looks startled at his refusal and Sabo's clenches tighter in pain. But he knows what to do now. He remembers. 

" _Portgas_. D. Ace is my brother," he snarls darkly and drags Ace behind him. "And I'll kill you for trying to hurt him."

Akainu snorts, angry and condescending in the same measure and heat rolls off of him in a dark red wave. 

"We'll see," he rumbles. "If I can kill the three of you, that's enough for me. Whitebeard will die on his own."

Ace surges forward with a heart full of anger and Sabo can see in Akainu's eyes that this is what he wanted all along. So he moves faster.

Somewhere to the right he can see Whitebeard turning towards them, his booming voice calling out Ace's name only to be blocked by a wave of darkness. A Yonkou of his caliber might not need help but Sabo doesn't feel right letting him fight alone. He moves to send Ace after him. But there's someone he needs to take out first. 

Akainu doesn't leave them any time to think of anything but survival and the three brothers move together as one. Luffy rushes forward with a battle cry and Ace flares up, running on fury, his flames rising as he readies an attack. They attack together, one after the other.

Lava pours down as Akainu sweeps wide in a move meant to break bones and burn. Ace blocks the hit but from the corner of his eye Sabo sees flecks appear on Ace's skin as the lava lands.

Fear jolts his heart as Ace flickers between stages of solidity and in the half-second between Akainu focus leaving Ace and turning towards Luffy's shocked cry, he coats his steel pipe in haki and sharpens its edge. It cuts through Akainu's lava like butter, ripping straight through the fabric of his uniform to pierce his heart and come out the other side.

Silence reigns. Sabo doesn't stop moving, pushing Ace forward towards Whitebeard. "Go!"

Ace turns the ground around him into pillars of fire as magma cools beneath their feet. Akainu's eyes are wide and shocked, blood bubbling from his mouth. Sabo doesn't wait for him to manage any last words. With a sharp twist of his wrist, he pulls the pipe from Akainu's chest and watches his heart's blood spill heavy onto the ground. 

His eyes are cold, his heartbeat steady.

This man that would have killed his brother. It's only right that he's dead. 

"Let's go Luffy," he says and his youngest brother nods, eyes serious and curls bouncing as he does. He moves closer to Sabo, unwilling to be far apart from him and Sabo ruffles his hair, marveling at its softness and even better, the jolt of warmth and familiarity that curls in his heart as he does.

Ace has reached Whitebeard and his fire chases the darkness away, even as light shatters across the battlefield from his father's devil fruit.

"I have my son back," booms Whitebeard. "There is nothing left for us here. Men!"

A cheer erupts from the throats of the pirates, their voices raw with exertion and the rising tide of victory. The ground shakes and shakes but this time Sabo knows its safe.

He has found his footing and as he runs with Luffy, scooping him up and tossing him over his shoulder when he sees the boy falter, a wild sort of laughter leaveing his mouth as he throws his head back, a goofy grin spread across his face. Somewhere beside him he can feel Ace's banked flames crackling with joy and his brother's happiness buoys his own. 

The war ends. 

They pile onto the massive warships that Whitebeard brought with him and wonder of wonders, another Yonkou covers their escape, his familiar red hair a beacon flag under the fierce sun. The ocean moves them further away from the battlefield, her waves wild and stormy but pushing them further towards safety nonetheless.

Sabo, with his hands still wrapped around his siblings, takes a deep deep breath and lets it out. He can already see the beginnings of a victory banquet coming together but not yet. He can't do that yet.

Later, the brothers join the banquet. At night with the stars spread across the sky and the sounds of merriment and fierce joy for life all around them, fast-paced music and stomping feet and Whitebeard's thunderous voice calling them close.

Ace's beaming smile lighting the room as he introduces them to his father and his family. Luffy stealing a jug of grog from a man with a golden hook and chugging it down so he can shove another mouthful of food into his mouth and dodging the sharp stream of sand that comes his way with a bright cackle. A certain dark-eyed doctor making the rounds and offering his services of healing free of charge just for the night with a sly half smile and a polar bear at his side.

The party is loud and both food and laughter flow freely. The singing lasts until the stars go dark and the moon is a faint silver shadow in the sky and still continues, faint voices taking up slow ballads about the glimmering seas until they are soothed to sleep by the gentle waves.

But that is later.

Before that the siblings slip away and they curl up in a pile, jabbing at each others sides with pointy elbows and collapsing into exhausted giggles as they patch each others wounds and speak through the night. About where they've all been, who they've seen, what sort of people they have become. They talk and talk until their voices grow hoarse and turn into whispers and Sabo remembers with perfect clarity a moment where they did the same.

A night they spent huddled under blankets, a time when they were all so very small and still wondering at the largeness of the world, dreaming of their own adventures but knowing with certainty that no matter how far they all went they would always be connected through a bond they made with their very own hands.

Sabo's eyes grow hot with tears but the smile never leaves his mouth even as Ace makes an alarmed noise and Luffy moves from being leaned up against him to sitting up with wide eyes, worried that they've accidentally hit one of his wounds. His brothers are with him now. Nothing hurts, he tries to tell them. Everything is perfect. And they understand.

He knew they would.


End file.
